YEREVAN. – The second President of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, is not in attendance to Monday’s court hearing into his custody matter, since the actual motion is not likely to be examined on this day.

Aram Orbelyan, one of Kocharyan’s attorneys on Monday stated the aforementioned at the capital city Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction.

“We have grounds for several recusals which need to be examined,” he said. “That is, today the probability is great that we will not reflect on the examination of the actual motion.”

As reported earlier, the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction on Monday commenced consideration of the motion by the legal defense team of Robert Kocharyan, and to the effect that their client be released from custody on bail, as well as the petition by the Special Investigation Service, and with a request to extend Kocharyan’s confinement for another two months.

With its ruling on December 7, 2018 the Criminal Court of Appeal upheld the first instance court’s July 27 decision on remanding Robert Kocharyan in custody. On the same day—December 7, Kocharyan handed himself over to a Yerevan penitentiary where he was arrested.   

Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan—along with several other former officials—has been charged within the framework of the criminal case into the tragic events that transpired in capital city Yerevan on March 1 and 2, 2008—and under Article 300.1 Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code; that is, breaching Armenia’s constitutional order, in conspiracy with others.

On March 1 and 2, 2008 the then authorities of Armenia used force against the opposition members who were rallying in downtown Yerevan, and against the results of the presidential election on February 19, 2008. Eight demonstrators as well as two servicemen of the internal troops were killed in the clashes. But no one had been brought to account for these deaths, to this day.